


6 True Facts About Jim Sterling

by opensummer



Series: drabbles [22]
Category: Leverage
Genre: Comment Fic, Getting Together, Multi, OT3, Originally Posted on Tumblr, i guess, ot3: arrest them both
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-03
Updated: 2017-08-03
Packaged: 2018-12-10 13:04:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 533
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11692230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opensummer/pseuds/opensummer
Summary: What it says on the tin.





	6 True Facts About Jim Sterling

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know how anybody can watch the Frame Up Job and avoid the conclusion that Nate, Sophie, and Sterling have had (and will have continue to have) uncomfortable feelings laden threesomes where they talk around _all_ their issues.

 1. Him and Nate hooked up a handful of times before Nate met Maggie. After jobs, usually when they were high on adrenaline and feeling smug. They stop three months before he meets Maggie and he can't figure out why until Nate introduces them over dinner. He always knew Nate was a bit of a bastard. 

* * *

2\. When Olivia’s mother takes them to Dubai, she’s barely 8. Sterling tries to stop her. 

He can’t.

So he promises Olivia to do his best and gives her every single way to contact him he can think of. On that list of numbers at the very bottom is Nathan Ford’s phone number. ONLY IN EMERGENCIES he wrote, all caps, in red ink. If you can’t get a hold of me, call him, and he’ll take care of you like he’s own daughter. 

* * *

3\. He updates that number every three months even after Nate starts playing black hat. He updates that number every time he realizes it’s changed. 

His will he doesn’t update. (It asks Nate to look in on Olivia and leaving it in after Nate starts burning would be admitting something wouldn’t it.)

Whatever his other faults Nathan Ford was an excellent father.

* * *

 3.5 Sterling used to chase Sophie too y'know. Not the same way Nate did with banter and the endless flirting but they sparked off each other even then.

* * *

 4. In Ukraine when they're ostentatiously rescuing Maggie, they run together and it’s fun playing this side of the law. He understands Nate a little better then.

In Dubai a year later, they work together and it’s even better then until Olivia says _what wouldn’t you do for your kid_. And he’s angry then furiously so because she’s not wrong, and he never wanted to relate to Nathan Ford again

Between then and the last damn job he shows up at mcrory’s. Nate and Sophie are closing down the bar with he shows up and asks if it’s worth it. 

Nate doesn’t say anything but Sophie says of course. and the three of them get sloshed and Nate offers Sterling the couch. 

He doesn’t end up sleeping there though

In the morning Nate makes them breakfast, as his hangover is the least awful out of the three of them. 

(They don’t talk about it. But Nate and Sophie both kiss him on his way out the door.)

And then Nathan Ford is on every watch list in the country and neither of them is picking up when he calls. 

* * *

5\. He stumbles on them in Portland and is so goddamn relieved that he can’t ever be angry. ( _Should have sent a card_ , Sophie says and damn right they should have.)

* * *

6\. Parker baffles him after years of playing against Nate. But that’s alright, when he’s too fed up with them, he takes a bottle of wine to whereever Nate and Sophie are that week and bitches about their children. He likes the way they look when he talks about Leverage 2.0, all pleased and soft, proud parents to their criminal children. 

He likes what invariably happens next even more when Sophie drops into his lap and Nate leans over to kiss him.  

**Author's Note:**

> Cleaned up and edited verison of a snippet from [tumblr](http://openemptysummer.tumblr.com/)


End file.
